AAR-SE is excited to announce that our 2026 meeting will take place at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina from March 6-8, 2026. The conference theme is “Shifting Identities and Fractured Communities”.
Call for Papers: View the 2026 CFP now! Submissions are due October 1, 2025. Please reach out to the section chairs for any questions about your proposal.
Information on accommodations and registration will be available close to the conference dates.
Theme: Shifting Identities and Fractured Communities
Greenville rose to prominence as a medium sized textile manufacturing city, prosperous into the late 20th century. After two decades of economic decline, the 21st century has seen tremendous growth in population, cultural diversity, and economic opportunity. Underneath the “New South” glitter, however, there are still the wounds of racism and class oppression as well as the cultural gravity of religious fundamentalism — a situation evidenced throughout the South. Fractures created by these cultural shifts have become even more visible and consequential in recent years and months. This is a time in which the academic study of religion should take into account its physical and social location in this region, and consider how our subject matter, and the ways in which we study it, might help us understand and adapt to the shifting ground under our feet.
We encourage papers that consider how religion is constructed or activated in local, regional, political or social contexts, how identities shift over time and in new contexts, as well how religious studies might confront the growing fractures within our communities.
Please send section paper proposals directly to Leah.Robinson@williamwoods.edu
To avoid confusion about program units please include the name of the unit that you are submitting and “CFP” in the subject line.
For consideration, please submit a paper title and 300-word abstract to the above email. Only one proposal will be considered by each applicant, but you may indicate first and second choice for possible units.
Graduate Student Award: Graduate students who wish to be considered for this award should submit a paper of no more than 12 pages to RELSERegion@gmail.com, no later than January 15, 2026. Please include Graduate Student Award in the subject line of the email.
Undergraduate Student Award: All undergraduate papers emailed to RELSERegion@gmail.com by the December 15, 2025 deadline are eligible for the undergraduate award. See full instructions below.